


What if there is light beyond the dark (could we find our fire deep inside our hearts)

by MYuzuki



Series: No matter what’s in front of me (I’ll keep fighting til I’ve won) [21]
Category: Final Fantasy XV, Kingsglaive
Genre: Gen, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Time Travel Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-14
Updated: 2020-09-14
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:15:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26462497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MYuzuki/pseuds/MYuzuki
Summary: It feels a bit like déjà vu, for Nyx to be deploying on a mission to rescue the Princess of Tenebrae.
Relationships: Lunafreya Nox Fleuret & Nyx Ulric
Series: No matter what’s in front of me (I’ll keep fighting til I’ve won) [21]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1897525
Comments: 15
Kudos: 124





	What if there is light beyond the dark (could we find our fire deep inside our hearts)

**What if there is light beyond the dark (could we find our fire deep inside our hearts)**

* * *

It feels a bit like déjà vu, for Nyx to be deploying on a mission to rescue the Princess of Tenebrae.

A lot of the circumstantial stuff is different, of course, courtesy of Nyx's actions which have altered the course of history (something he tries not to think about too often, lest he get pulled down into a spiral of painful memories and what-ifs) but certain things are the same as well which he finds utterly bizarre.

Lunafreya is still being held captive by the Empire, but she's no longer a prisoner on an airship; instead, she's a prisoner in a stationary fortress in Duscae, high up in a mountain range that no one remembers the name of.

Nyx himself still petitions the King to let him lead a team of Glaives to retrieve her, but this time opts to leave Pelna behind to help Crowe and Libertus manage the rest of the Kingsglaive during his absence, choosing instead to bring with him a strike team of six other Glaives that he's worked with before and knows he can trust to get the job done.

It's different from before and he _knows_ that, but there's still a trickle of foreboding creeping down his spine because he can't help but remember another mission to rescue the princess, a mission that had changed everything.

This mission will probably change everything, too, but in ways he hasn't experienced firsthand in an alternate timeline, ways he can't predict. And perhaps that should frighten him, the unfathomable future that's looming in front of him, but all he feels is a heady sort of anticipation.

Because he knows one possible future already, the one he'd lived through and died for. And yes, he'd died in that other time with the hope that the world would be better someday, but even then there had been so much death and tragedy, so much pain.

There's no guarantee that the future he's walking towards now will be any better, but there's a _chance_.

A chance for a better ending, and he'd be a fool not to fight for that with every ounce of power and determination in his body.

So he petitions Regis to let him take a strike team into Duscae, and Regis grants his request.

Which is how Nyx finds himself dangling off a steep cliff in a mountainous wilderness some ten hours later, questioning his life choices as he warps himself to safety just as the ledge he'd been clinging to disintegrates under his fingertips.

"Well, that was exciting," he mutters to himself, brushing dirt off his coat as he stands, magical power thrumming through his veins like a wildfire barely contained. "How are the rest of you doing?" he asks over the comms a moment later.

"We're doing fine, sir," one of the other Glaives, a woman named Gertrude, responds. "You were right about the side approach being undermanned; we've encountered only two guard patrols so far, and they were easy enough to eliminate."

"Great," Nyx says, pleased with how their divide-and-conquer strategy is working out so far; instead of a direct assault, he'd sent four members of his strike team to attack the fortress from the side as a means of circumventing the formidable defenses at the front, while the other two hold position at their rendezvous site. And while that's going on, his job is to infiltrate the base from the back (where the rear of the fortress looms on the edge of the aforementioned cliff) in the hopes of retrieving the princess quickly and then meeting up with the four attackers once they breach the fortress themselves, making for a larger protective detail for the princess on their way _out_ of the building.

"Keep up the good work," he tells his team now, "but don't get careless, alright? These bastards like their tricks, so be on the lookout for anything suspicious."

He gets a chorus of "Yes, sir," in response, and then they all get back to work.

In the end, Nyx breaks through the rear defense of the fortress with two well-placed lightning bolts to the door and a series of warp-strikes that he uses to hopscotch around and eliminate the few guards who'd been stationed on "back door duty".

The rest of his strike team breaches the side of the fortress at the same time, causing just enough of a distraction to divert the rest of the soldiers in the fortress, allowing Nyx to quietly slip through the marble hallways to where Lunafreya is being held in a spacious suite of rooms that represent a prettied-up dungeon more than anything.

He's surprised by the wall of emotion that slams into him when he sees her face, has to take a short moment to breathe through the relief and nostalgia and sorrow that washes through him when he sees her and _remembers_ , but manages to shake it off when the Princess of Tenebrae fixes him in a look that's two parts curious and one part suspicious.

"My name is Nyx Ulric, with the Kingsglaive of Lucis," he tell her now, a first meeting for the second time. "King Regis sent us here to rescue you, and bring you back to Insomnia with us."

"Us?" Lunafreya echoes, both eyebrows lifting up towards her hairline.

As if on cue, four more Glaives come spilling into the room, splattered in blood and dust and panting like they'd just been running laps.

"We've cleared a path for extraction, sir," Gertrude informs him, the thick plait of her auburn hair coming loose as she wipes at a smear of sweat and ash on her cheek. "Tristan and Adalynn confirm that things are clear on their end, too, so if we leave now we should be able to rendezvous with them within ten minutes and get away from here with minimal pursuit."

"Excellent," Nyx says, all but bursting with pride over how fucking _spectacular_ his Glaives are, now that they're focused on working together for the greater good instead of competing with each other and worrying about being betrayed again. "Let's hurry up and get the hell out of here, then. I'm sure the Princess is eager to breathe free air again," he adds, holding a hand out to the lady in question.

Lunafreya gives a shaky smile, warm and grateful if not also a little sad, and takes his hand and allows him to pull her along with him as they hustle out of the room and towards the closest exit. "I am indeed," she says.


End file.
